Teratomas from past to the present: A scientometric analysis with global productivity and research trends between 1980 and 2022

There is currently no bibliometric study on teratomas in the literature. This study aims to analyze the published articles on teratomas to provide an overview of the subject, determine global productivity, and identify current research trends. Additionally, data on different components of scientific output (countries, journals, institutions, authors) were analyzed. A total of 4209 articles published on teratomas between 1980 and 2022 were analyzed using various bibliometric and statistical methods. Bibliometric network visualization maps were used to determine trending topics, citation analyses, and international collaborations. Spearman correlation coefficient was used for correlation analysis. The top 3 countries that made the most contributions to the literature were the USA (1041, 24.7%), Japan (501, 11.9%), and India (310, 7.3%). The top 3 active institutions were the University of California System (n = 78), University of London (64), and Harvard University (62). The top 3 productive journals were the Journal of Pediatric Surgery (n = 141), Pediatric Surgery International (n = 70), and Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports (69). The most productive author was Ulbright TM. (n = 18). The most studied topics from past to present were ovarian cancer/ovarian teratoma/ovarian torsion, mature cystic teratoma/dermoid cyst, sacrococcygeal teratoma, germ cell tumors, immature teratoma, malignant transformation, mediastinal teratoma/mediastinum, neonate/newborn/infant, prenatal diagnosis, testis/testicular cancer/teratoma, ultrasonography/ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, chemotherapy, growing teratoma syndrome, surgery, retroperitoneal teratoma/retroperitoneum, laparoscopic surgery/laparoscopy, children/child, and fetal surgery/fetus. We identified trend research topics in the field of teratomas in recent years, including mature cystic teratoma, ovarian teratoma/neoplasm, ovarian cancer, ovarian torsion, growing teratoma syndrome, recurrence, pediatric, testicular cancer, anti-n-methyl-d-aspartate receptor encephalitis, immature teratoma, retroperitoneal, struma ovarii, and carcinoid. The research leadership in the development of teratoma literature was determined by countries with major economies such as the USA, Japan, India, the UK, China, Turkey, South Korea, and other European countries (France, Germany, Italy).